Most modern internal combustion engine designs use the combination of a cam, lifter, and a push rod to operate the intake and exhaust valves of the engine. Typically, the lifter “rides” against a rotating eccentric lobe of a cam shaft. The eccentricity of the cam shaft lobe raises and lowers (or reciprocates) the lifter/push rod assembly which in turn activates a rocker arm. In turn, the rocker arm acts against the stem portion of the valve to cause the opening and closing of the valve. It is common to use lifters that employ wheels (commonly called “rollers”) disposed between the lifter and the cam lobe. These rollers rotate against the cam lobe thereby minimizing friction between the cam lobe and the lifter. Although roller lifters are effective for minimizing friction between the lifter and the cam, the axis of rotation of the roller must stay generally parallel to the axis of rotation of the cam. If these axes are not generally parallel, the roller will not properly engage the cam shaft lobe and the roller may gall the cam lobe. Traditionally, this problem (misalignment of the roller axis and the cam axis) is prevented on “V” style engines by using an alignment structure which engages a keyed portion (such as a flat or the like) on the body of the roller lifters. This keyed alignment structure prevents the roller lifters from rotating within a bore of the block in which they reciprocate.
Present production alignment structures are composed of a plurality of elements. The present invention reduces the number of elements thereby generating cost savings and reducing the possibility of inadvertently omitting a component (which can cause a cam shaft or lifter to prematurely fail).